Educators look to start student assistance program

Thursday

Jan 3, 2008 at 2:00 AM

By Margaret Carroll-Bergman I&M Staff Writer

With the suicides of two Nantucket High School students last year, representatives from the island’s mental health organizations have formed a community task force to work on suicide prevention and raise money to fund a Student Assistance Program in the schools.

Mental health counselors continue to have a presence in the schools and are working with students who continue to be troubled by the suicides of their classmates. Freshman Vaughn Peterson took his own life in February and senior Kate MacLellan committed suicide in October.

“We are hearing from a lot of kids that there is nowhere to go to deal with issues,” said Peter Swenson, director of Family and Children’s Services of Nantucket. “A lot of kids are expressing that there is no safe place to go if they are concerned about a friend or fellow student.”

The community task force is looking to put a Student Assistance Program coordinator in the schools, a person who would address kindergarten through 12th grade prevention, intervention and support.

“The guidance department is overwhelmed with what is needed of them,” said Swenson. “We have three and one-half staff people who work with kids through the system from this agency to deal with significant mental health and addiction problems.”

The Student Assistance Program would be implemented system-wide and not take time from classroom instruction.

“Effective prevention programming goes back to the womb. We need to educate parents,” said Swenson. “Kindergarten through fifth grade, we’re not going to talk about suicide, but making healthy choices. In middle school, we’ll focus on bullying, racial issues and drugs.

Research shows that bullies and their victims are at-risk for using drugs and alcohol and have a higher rate for suicide. From what we are hearing, there is bullying in the elementary school as well. Shy kids, introverted kids, kids who speak with an accent, fat kids, kids who are too smart. Sometimes adults bully each other in not-so-nice letters to the editor which get printed from time to time. If adults treat each other with disrespect, there is a likelihood that children will model adult behavior.”

“In the high school, we will train students how to work with other kids in making healthy choices and in not using drugs and alcohol. There will be more peer outreach,” added Swenson. “The kids are not the therapist or the counselor, but they would help the person get the right help.”

Swenson hopes to hire a Student Assistance Program coordinator for the district by the end of February.

The position will be funded by private donations.

The Community Foundation of Nantucket, a philanthropic organization that serves as an umbrella organization for directing charitable giving on the island, where Swenson’s wife Jackie McGrady is the manager, has pledged to designate a fund specifically for the Student Assistance Program.

Swenson received $2,000 in donations from community members toward the $15,000 in contributions needed to establish the fund. He has also received letters of commitment from three different foundations totaling $90,000.

“The Community Foundation board will find the resources for three years to make sure it stays in place for the long haul,” said Swenson. “It is important the Student Assistance Program be supported by the community. We also need people to volunteer their time and to chaperone events.”

Swenson said two issues of concern in the high school were the incidence of students cutting themselves and students with eating disorders.

“Boys are rapidly catching up to girls in the incidence of eating disorders and girls are out-stretching boys with alcohol abuse,” said Swenson of a national trend which has picked up during the last decade. “We want to strengthen a young person’s resiliency and we have to make sure we are plugging kids into the ways for kids to express themselves such as in athletics, arts and music.”

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